Mega Splatterhouse Is Almost Feature Complete, and Its Creator Wants Namco to Make It Legitimate

Monster Bath Games approaches feature completion on Mega Splatterhouse for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, seeking Bandai Namco's blessing for an official commercial release.

Monster Bath Games' remarkable Mega Drive and Genesis conversion of Namco's 1988 arcade horror game Splatterhouse is approaching a major milestone. Developer Monster Bath says Mega Splatterhouse should become feature complete after the remaining fifth and sixth levels are finished, after which attention will shift toward palette cleanup, music, sound effects and enemy AI. The more intriguing development concerns release plans.

Rather than simply uploading the finished fan project and watching unofficial cartridge sellers immediately monetise somebody else's work, Monster Bath intends to approach Namco or relevant partners in the hope of arranging a legitimate release. The developer says money is not the main motivation; proper handling of the project is. There is no indication yet that Bandai Namco has agreed to such an arrangement, so an official release should absolutely not be treated as confirmed.

Even so, the attempt is interesting. High-quality fan ports increasingly occupy a strange middle ground: technically sophisticated enough to resemble commercial products but legally dependent on intellectual property whose owners may have very different plans. Mega Splatterhouse has already existed publicly through a Halloween demo, so the project itself is not merely theoretical. The question now is whether Rick's next battle involves monsters or licensing departments. The latter traditionally have considerably more hit points.